The Roman Catholic clergy is under fire over a Victorian woman's
accusation that a Catholic priest in Ballarat sexually abused her when she
was seven years old.

Her lawyers sent a letter outlining the woman's claims to every parish in
Victoria, asking that it be read to all Victorian congregations.

The alleged victim says she was sexually abused by Gerald Ridsdale, a
former priest who is currently serving a prison sentence for abusing more
than 20 children.

But Ballarat's Bishop says he is convinced the priest did not sexually
abuse the woman and the Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart has instructed
Melbourne's priests to ignore the letter.

A warning: this report contains graphic allegations.

She recounted the alleged abuse on Fairfax Radio in Melbourne this
morning.

"I was made to drink my own urine, eat my own vomit. I was beaten many
times," she said.

"Yes, by Ridsdale, I was [sexually assaulted], yes."

The woman says her abuse began in the 1960s when she was seven years old
at an orphanage run by the Catholic church in the regional Victorian city of
Ballarat.

That claim is disputed by Ballarat's Bishop, Peter Connors, who says he
is convinced the woman's version of events is wrong.

Nonetheless, she was given a $12,000 payment several years ago by the
organisation that ran the home.

A spokeswoman for The Sisters of Nazareth has told the ABC the payment
was a compassionate one or, in her words, "a pastoral gesture", not a
compensation payment.

The Catholic Church says $12,000 was not related to the woman's current
claims.

Angela Sdrinis, the alleged victim's lawyer, has sent a letter detailing
her client's abuse claims to every Victorian parish priest, to point out
that the Catholic Church's legal structure makes adequate compensation
almost impossible to obtain.

"The Catholic Church, they've been hiding behind what I could call a
corporate veil for over a decade," she said.

"In the cases of historical sexual abuse, the head of the church or the
religious order in question has often passed away, they no longer exist.

"That leaves the property trust as the only legal entity that can be
sued, and the High Court agreed with the argument of the Catholic Church
that as the property trust has nothing to do with the hiring and firing and
supervision of priests, they can't be held liable in cases of sexual abuse.

"So that leaves victims with no-one to sue."

The ABC has seen a copy of a letter Archbishop Dennis Hart wrote to
Melbourne's parish priests in response to Ms Sdrinis' letter.

In it, Archbishop Hart says the claims of abuse have no connection to the
Archdiocese of Melbourne and that a complaint in relation to the abuse has
already been dealt with.

Archbishop Hart goes on to say that it is inappropriate for the letter's
contents to be shared in the parishes of the Melbourne Archdiocese.

'Make it easier' for victims

But Chris MacIsaac, who leads Broken Rights - a support group for people
sexually abused by Catholic clergy - says the Catholic church needs to make
it easier for victims of abuse to pursue their claims.

"It really boils down to the fact they feel they've been treated unjustly
and they feel that they've been denied their day in court," she said.

"It is very fragmented and it's very difficult to know who can be sued
and who can't, and at the end of the day, victims feel that they've used
everything in their power to keep them away from a fair and just outcome."

Father Brian Lucas from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference
disputes that.

"The Towards Healing program that is used by most of the dioceses and
religious orders in Australia and the Melbourne protocol itself make
provision to deal pastorally with people who make these allegations and in
the appropriate cases that can involve compensation," he said.

"That is an alternative to litigation. The suggestion that the church
can't be sued is simply not correct."

Father Lucas says he does not believe the woman who spoke out today was
abused by Ridsdale at the Ballarat orphanage.

"The allegations were referred to the Victoria police who did not take
any action," he said.

"But apart from that, the church's own internal process under the Towards
Healing protocol involved an independent assessment that was very thoroughly
undertaken and in the particular case it was found that there were
inconsistencies in the way that the story was being presented which
suggested it lacked credibility.

"There was then an appeal against that and the review panel reviewed the
assessment and came to the same conclusion."

The alleged victim says she intends to continue pursuing a civil action
anyway.

2. 4 Amish bishops charged with not reporting abuse

The Associated Press/November 3, 2009

By Maria Sudekum Fisher

Marshfield, Mo. - Four Amish leaders in southwest Missouri who chose to
"shun" an accused child molester in their community rather than report him
to authorities were charged Tuesday with failing to report the sexual abuse.

Webster County prosecutor Danette Padgett said all four are bishops and
face one misdemeanor count each of failure to report child abuse as a
mandatory reporter.

Under Missouri law, people with "responsibility for the care of children"
are required to report suspected child abuse. Examples of mandatory
reporters under the statute are doctors, nurses, social workers and teachers
and ministers who are not engaged in a "privileged communication."

An attorney for the men, Will Worsham, questioned whether they can be
considered mandatory reporters. He said the Amish do not separate government
and religion and that a bishop is akin to a mayor or city councilman.

"I'm not convinced 'bishop' necessarily implies any type of religious
authority in their community. And even if it did, I'm not sure they would
qualify as 'clergy.' It doesn't appear anywhere in the law."

The four men knew that a member of their community, Johnny A. Schwartz,
36, had been abusing two underage children from June 2007 through June 2008,
according to the probable cause statement. Schwartz was charged in
mid-October with six counts involving sexual abuse of children.

Authorities would not say how Schwartz and the bishops with the same
surname are related. They also would not release the ages of the children or
their relationship to Johnny Schwartz.

About 2,200 Amish live in Webster County. Sheriff Roye H. Cole said
authorities found out about the alleged abuse from someone who works among
the them. That individual, who has not been identified, had heard about
Schwartz being shunned by the community and asked why.

Shunning is a form of punishment among the Amish in which a member of the
group who fails to follow the rules is ostracized.

"They make the religious argument that they've punished them," Cole said.
"They're shunned, and if they confessed their sins and ask forgiveness, they
have no moral authority to report it to the law."

"They feel they cannot report a brother that has been forgiven of their
sins," he added.

Padgett and Cole said they believe the bishops were told about the
alleged abuse by Schwartz's wife, which would make it a nonprivileged
communication because she was not "confessing."

But Worsham, who also represents Johnny Schwartz, said prosecutors are
using an overly broad definition of the mandatory reporter law.

"In order to hold up charges against these individuals, it could make a
lot of people 'mandatory reporters' in this state that would be shocked to
learn they were defined as such," Worsham said. "If you're a part-time
Sunday school teacher, you may suddenly be defined as a 'mandatory
reporter.' I don't think that's what anyone has contemplated in the past."

Chicago -- The Archdiocese of Chicago announced July 21 that it had
reached settlements totaling $3.9 million in cases of six survivors of
clergy sex abuse. All of the cases involved abuse that happened between 1970
and 1986, and all of the priests involved have been out of ministry for
almost 20 years, the archdiocese said. Two of the priests are dead; the
other two have been laicized.

The announcement said the archdiocese and the survivors reached an
agreement through "a comprehensive mediation process," which included
sharing documents and information as well as the public disclosure of
information. The parties involved also used an arbitrator to resolve any
disputes. "It has long been the process of the archdiocese to reach out to
victims to try to resolve their claims without requiring them to go through
lengthy court proceedings," archdiocesan chancellor Jimmy Lago said in a
statement. "We believe that negotiation and mediation are the best, most
compassionate ways to resolve these cases, as it spares the survivors and
their families the burdens and stresses of an extended legal process," he
added.

4. 400 cases of sexual abuse by Dutch
clergy

More than 400 cases of sexual abuse by clergy have been reported in the
Netherlands since 1995

Radio Netherlands, Expatica/June 20, 2009

The Netherlands - The allegations were made on Friday night by
television programme Zembla.

Among the victims are people who sought council from both Catholic
priests and Protestant ministers.

The offenders include clergy holding a variety of functions and ranks.

So far only 200 complaints have been filed, 95 of which were deemed
concluded.

Zembla says churches have been keen to hush up all the cases.

The programme found that the independent committee handling the complains
of Catholic victims last year resigned en bloc.

The committe members felt that, rather than helping the victims, they
were being pressured to protect the church against any claims.

5. Six decades later, 2 men accuse
nuns of sex abuse

Star-Ledger, New Jersey/October 04, 2009

From a sidewalk in Kearny, Henry Coffey, 80, points to the sections of
the old Sacred Heart Orphanage where he says nuns molested and beat him as a
boy in the early 1940s: the laundry room; the nuns' quarters; the
classrooms.

His sex-abuse claims will be hard to prove in court -- the nuns are
deceased, for one thing - but Coffey and another former orphanage resident,
Frank Fioretti, 81, recently cleared a legal hurdle when a Superior Court
judge in Essex County denied a motion to dismiss their 2005 suit.

That motion had been brought by the Pallatine Sisters, the religious
order now based in Harriman, N.Y., that ran the boys orphanage until it
closed in the 1950s.

"I remember everything," Coffey said in an interview during which he
recounted allegations that a nun and he had repeated sexual encounters in
her room during his seventh-grade year, and intercourse at a bungalow in
Harriman during the summer. "I always seemed to have a good memory."

Allegations that Catholic clergy molested minors in the 1960s, 1970s and
1980s have become common in the last seven years, in the aftermath of the
clergy sex scandal. Allegations dating to the 1940s are rarer, said Jeff
Anderson, an attorney in St. Paul, Minn., who has represented thousands in
clergy sex-abuse cases.

"You just don't hear about it," he said, "because those people have
learned to suffer in silence and are afraid of rebuke, reprisal or
disbelief."

Matters of time

They present obvious challenges to the court system, as the defense
pointed out while trying to dismiss the case: Witnesses die. Evidence is
lost. Memories fade. And then there are the statutes of limitations.

Stressing the passage of time since the alleged abuse, the Pallatines'
attorneys noted in court papers that when the plaintiffs lived at the
orphanage, from 1937 to 1943, "Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president of
the United States, Winston Churchill was the British prime minister, the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and James Cagney won the 1942 Academy Award
for best actor for his role in the classic movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy.'"

The Pallatines' lawyer, in pressing for dismissal, argued that statutes
of limitations were in effect, that the plaintiffs' delays in suing make the
case virtually impossible to defend, and that Coffey tried to unfairly
influence the testimony of another former orphanage resident. The lawyer,
Anthony Dougherty, did not return calls seeking comment.

State says he is likely to commit another sex crime; officials want to
extend his incarceration

Chicago Tribune/October 20, 2009

By Manya A. Brachear

Attorneys representing a convicted former priest moved on Monday to keep
private most of the court proceedings and seal the records related to an
effort to have him committed under a state statute for sex offenders.

Under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, the Illinois attorney
general and the Cook County state's attorney filed a joint petition last
month to have Daniel McCormack confined to a state treatment facility. The
law allows prosecutors to seek continued incarceration if a psychological
exam leads them to believe another sex crime is likely if the inmate goes
free.

Last month, a forensic psychiatrist diagnosed McCormack with pedophilia
and recommended civil commitment, a recommendation attached to the joint
petition.

"Continued dissemination of the respondent's past crimes, current mental
state, mental health history and psychiatric diagnosis to the Cook County
jury pool will pose a serious and imminent threat to the fairness of the
commitment proceedings," the motion said.

Prosecutors declined to respond to the motions before the next hearing
date Nov. 4.

Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests, objected to the defense team's efforts to keep part of the
proceedings private, saying McCormack gave up his claims to privacy "when he
chose to molest boys and devastate young lives."

Officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago declined to
comment on Monday's proceedings but reiterated that McCormack was removed
from the priesthood in 2007 by Vatican decree.

Mark Heyrman, clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago,
said that if civil commitment is not considered extra punishment for the
crimes committed, McCormack has a right to request protection.

"In my view, there aren't any good reasons why this hearing should be
open to the public if the defendant doesn't want it open," he said. "Why do
we need to know what's going on in the actual hearing? The fact that it's
public may affect the outcome."

McCormack, 40, pleaded guilty in July 2007 to abusing five boys and was
sentenced to five years in prison.

7. RC priest jailed 30 years for sodomy

The Guardian, UK/August 10, 2006

By Rose Mirondo

A Roman Catholic Priest, Sixtus Kimaro, was yesterday sentenced to 30
years in jail for sodomy.

Kimaro, 38, was further ordered by Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s court in
Dar es Salaam to pay 2m/- in compensation to the 17-year youth he was found
guilty of sodomising.

In passing the sentence, Principal Resident Magistrate Pellagia
Khaday, noted that the long jail sentence was intended to be a deterrent
to potential offenders.

In her judgement, Khaday said the prosecution had proved in court
beyond doubt that the youth (name withheld) was indeed sodomised.

The magistrate said it had been proved that Kimaro had unnatural
sexual intercourse with the youth, who is still considered a minor in
law and, therefore, incapable informed consent.

She said that the reverend indecently assaulted the youth and
dehumanised him.

”In view of the strong and compelling evidence tendered, I have no
doubt whatsoever in my mind that the prosecution has proved its case
beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt.

I therefore convict you,” the magistrate said.

The prosecutor, Willy Mlulu, noted: ”The accused being a clergyman
ought to have been a role model.

I therefore ask the court to sentence him to life imprisonment for
the first count and five years for the second count.

He should also be ordered to compensate the victim for the social
embarrassment, physical and psychological torture he inflicted on him,’’
Mlulu said.

In 1995
Cardinal
Hans Hermann Groër stepped down as
head of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria following accusations of sexual
misconduct. In 1998 he left the country. He remained a Cardinal.
[1]

- Belgium

There have been several abuse cases in Belgium.

Diocese of Antwerp

Former parish priest
Bruno Vos of
Nieuwmoer parish in
Kalmthout was officially charged with
rape of a minor by the Belgian judiciary. There are also allegations of
possession of child pornography included in the charge.
[2]

Henri Lebras sentenced to ten
years for the rape of a twelve year old boy between 1995 and 1998.[3]

- Germany

In February 2010 Der Spiegel reported that more than 94
clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995; but only
30 of those suspects had actually been prosecuted because of legal time
constraints on pursuing cases.[4]

The
Ferns Inquiry 2005 - On 22 October
2005 a government-commissi oned report compiled by a former Irish Supreme
Court judge delivered an indictment of the handling of clerical sex abuse in
the Irish
diocese of Ferns.

- Italy

It is difficult to ascertain the correct statistics for
clerical sexual abuse in Italy because the Italian Government has a treaty
with the Vatican that guarantees areas of immunity to Vatican officials,
including bishops and priests.[5]

- The Netherlands

Cases of sexual abuse by religious members of the Roman
Catholic Church in The
Netherlands can since 1995 be
notified to a central church institution, called Secretariaat
Rooms-Katholiek Kerkgenootschap (SRRK).
[6][7].
In February 2010 Salesians were accused of sexual abuse in their juvenate
Don Rua in 's-Heerenberg. Salesian bishop of Rotterdam Van Luyn pleaded for
a thorough investigation.
[8]

- Poland

Archdiocese of Poznan

In March 2002 Archbishop
Juliusz Paetz quit following
accusations, which he denied, of sexually molesting young priests.[9]

Diocese of Plock

In early 2007 allegations surfaced that former Bishop
Stanislaw Wielgus (later very briefly
Archbishop of Warsaw) was aware that several priests in his former diocese
of Plock were sexually abusing minors.
[10]

Fr.
Marcial Maciel (1920 - 2008) founded
the
Legion of Christ, a Catholic order of
priests originating in
Mexico. Nine former seminarians of
his order accused Maciel of molestation.[18]
One retracted his accusation, saying that it was a plot intended to
discredit the Legion. Maciel maintained his innocence of the accusations.

- Peru

In 2007, Daniel Bernardo Beltrán Murguía Ward, a 42
year-old SCV consecrated layman was found by the National Police in a hostel
in Cercado de Lima with a 12 year-old boy, of whom he was taking sexually
explicit pictures. The boy was initially lured by Murguía Ward in
Miraflores, where he was given Pokemon figures in exchange for photos of his
intimate parts. When Murguía Ward was caught, he had paid the boy 20 soles
($7 USD) for his services in the hostel. The police have reported that
pictures of two other boys were also found on Murguía Ward's camera and that
the boy has claimed he received oral sex from Murguía Ward. These charges
have been denied by the accused. Murguía Ward has since been removed from
the SCV for his alleged misconduct.
[19][20][21].

The Society of Jesus made a
$50 million payout to over 100
Inuits who alleged that they had been
sexually abused. The settlement did not require them to admit molesting
Inuit children, but accusations involved 13 or 14 priests who allegedly
molested these children for 30 years.[22]

Father
James Porter was a
Roman Catholic
priest who was convicted of
molesting 28 children;[29]
He admitted sexually abusing at least 100 of both sexes over a period of 30
years, starting in the 1960s.[30]
Bishop
Sean O'Malley settled 101 abuse
claims and initiated a zero-tolerance policy against sexual abuse. He also
instituted one of the first comprehensive sexual abuse policies in the Roman
Catholic Church.
[31]

The
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
agreed to pay out 60 million dollars to
settle 45 lawsuits it still faces over 450 other pending cases.
According to the
Associated Press a total of 22
priests were involved in the settlement with cases going as far back as the
1930s.
[32] 20 million dollars of this
was paid by the insurers of the archdiocese. The main administrative office
of the archdiocese is due to be sold to cover the cost of these and future
law suits. The archdiocese will settle about 500 cases for about $600
million.[33]

Since 1966, the
Archdiocese of Miami Insurance
Programs have paid $26.1 million in settlement, legal and counselling costs
associated with sexual misconduct allegations made by minors involving
priests, laity and religious brothers and sisters.
[34]

A 2003 report on the sexual abuse of minors by clergy
in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee revealed that allegations of sexually
assaulting minors had been made against 58 ordained men. By early 2009, the
Archdiocese of Milwaukee had spent approximately $26.5 million in
attorney fees and
settlements. Under Archbishop
Timothy Dolan the archdiocese was
able to avoid
bankruptcy from lawsuits.[35]

Archbishop
Elden Curtiss reassigned a priest
despite
pedophilia allegations that had first
emerged in 1959. He later admitted to failing to examine the priest's
personnel file.[36]
In 1993, Curtiss confessed to removing letters documenting abuse from the
file, acknowledging his "shortsightedness and misjudgment."[36]

According to a 2005 investigation, while serving as
assistant vicar for administration in 1996, Bishop Cistone was involved with
silencing a nun who tried to alert parishioners at St. Gabriel parish about
abuse by a priest. According to the report, there were several other
instances of priest sexual abuse which Cistone was complicit in covering up.[39]

On November 21, 2005, Monsignor
Dale Fushek of the
Diocese of Phoenix was arrested and
charged with 10 criminal misdemeanor counts related to alleged inappropriate
sexual contact with teens and young adults.[40]

The
Archdiocese of Portland filed for
Chapter 11 reorganization on July 6,
2004, hours before two abuse trials were set to begin. Portland became the
first Catholic diocese to file for bankruptcy. An open letter to the
archdiocese's parishioners explained the archbishop's motivation.

Archdiocese of San Antonio

John Salazar - sentenced to life in
prison for sexually assaulting a 18-year-old parishioner.
[41]

Under Bishop
William S. Skylstad the
Diocese of Spokane declared
bankruptcy to protect it from claims of people abused by priests in December
2004. The Diocese of Spokane as part of its bankruptcy has agreed to pay at
least $48 million as compensation. This payout has to be agreed to by the
victims and a Judge before it will be made. According to Federal Bankruptcy
Judge Gregg W. Zive, money for the settlement would come from insurance
companies, the sale of church property, contributions from Catholic groups
and from the diocese's parishes.[42]

The
Diocese of Tucson filed bankruptcy in
September, 2004. The Diocese of Tucson reached an agreement with plaintiffs,
which the bankruptcy judge approved on June 11, 2005, specifying terms that
included allowing the diocese reorganization to continue in return for a
$22.2 million settlement.

Wilfred James Baker - sentenced
to four years in prison (parole after 2 years) for 16 counts of indecent
assault and one of gross indecency, involving eight boys, aged 10 to 13,
over a 20-year period between 1960 and 1979.[47]

David Daniel - sentenced to six
years jail, with parole after 4.5 years, for molesting four boys, a girl
and an adult male.
[48]

Rex Elmer - abuser sentenced in
1998 to five years jail (with parole after 3 years 4 months) for
molesting 12 boys at St Vincent's orphanage in South Melbourne.
[49]

Paul Pavlou, convicted on 29 June
2009 of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and of being
knowingly in possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to an 18
month jail sentence suspended for 24 months and to a two year community
based order. He will be registered on the Sex Offenders Register for 15
years. These offences occurred in 2005-2006 while he was the priest at
Healesville in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
[50]